Dear Studio Red,
What is one memory of Studio Red you can share with your family? If you need help remembering, look below! We did so much!
Love, Lauri and Emily
OUR WEEK IN PARTS
INDOOR EXPLORE
This week we focused our small groups around discovering new ways to explore familiar materials. In clay, inspired by the children’s efforts to flatten, we introduced printing with nature. We focused block work around creating and testing ramps. In the “break apart zone” as Jackson calls it, we investigated milkweed pods, learning how to record the parts in sketchbooks as a naturalist would.
How can clay help us understand the natural world?
How does a ramp work best?
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It’s little hooks, I noticed that. It’s really white. Travers
What more do we see when we slow down to break something apart?
I want to draw all of it. I’m going to draw where it came from. I’m going to put the words in here with arrows. Charlie
Too hard. But soft. Luca
A parachute! Luca
That milkweed is very high up! Will
It feels squishy. Spikey. Miles
There’s a little brown. Charlie
Mine too! Miles
Yikes, I already opened it. Miles
There’s a seed on it and there’s things connecting. Miles
This opens too! Charlie
The silk it kind of tickles. Miles
It’s smooshy but hard in the middle. Travers
A line that opened. I peeked in! Travers
Cuz it goes slowly down and it looks like a person coming down from a plane! Travers
BOOKS
We had two birthday celebrations this week, Luca and Charlie Schubert turned 5! Luca introduced us to a new book of poems and Charlie chose an old favorite from a Frog and Toad chapter book. And of course, our book look time is always well loved, a time for us to read the pictures with peers and have conversations about what we see, think, and wonder.
On Friday we read, How To Two, a book that explores playing within groups of different numbers. In Studio Red, children are trying to figure out how to form new friendships, how to play with new people and those that are most familiar to us. Many have been solving problems when they try to take space from others. How do we kindly say we don’t want to play with someone right now? How do we help each other feel better? How can we be flexible?
This week we practiced how to 16 with whole group games, snack, read-alouds, and a walk outside in our park!
How have you join in play with another?
Was there a time when a friend or classmate said they didn’t want to play with you?
What did you do?
Was there a time when you told a friend or classmate that you didn’t want to play with them?
How did you feel?
OUTDOOR EXPLORE
Here are some highlights from out outdoor exploration this week!
Do you remember how we moved the color from goldenrod to cloth?
A group works together to unfold and hang our work to dry.
Playing through the park we lingered in different spaces, creating stories and making discoveries.
What were you up to?
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REFLECTION MEETING
We introduced the children to our research topic – Visibility. Just as we have been breaking apart objects to better understand them, we thought together about breaking apart or “cracking open” the word to figure it out.
What does it mean when something is visible?
What does it mean when something is invisible?
Invisible. Louis, Luca
Clear…you can’t see it. Kaya
I saw on an ad, there’s a blanket and when you put it on, you’re gone. Caroline
Like when it’s light you can’t see it, and when it’s dark you can see it. Jackson
When one thing is the same color as another thing, it’s invisible. Thomas
Later on when Luca’s mom, Emily, was with a group of children, she captured them making sense of another word in this way. Looking together at a broken plate, the children said…
We can fix this plate. KATIE
Maybe we can brainstorm how? EMILY MILLS
What is a brainstorm?
We can break apart the word. RUTH
I think it’s when you say something in a stormy way. RUTH
Brain is your head. KATIE
Storm is like woo swoosh. LUCA
It’s like when your ideas are raining. LUCA
GREETINGS & GAMES
This week our morning began by creating a giant circle ramp. We made space for each other as new classmates entered the circle. We worked together to move a small felt ball all around.
It was a real challenge to create the right speed, to not let the ball jump off the track!
STORY WORKSHOP
This week Miles took the author’s chair! He shared a story about three wasp nests, two outside his window and one in the woods. We then asked him lots of questions. Next, Emily retold his story adding the details he provided with his answers. This was our first experience with editing—seeing how a story can grow!
Where have you seen a wasp or a bee?
Have you ever noticed their home?
THINKING WITH A LINE
What happens to our lines when we add color?
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